Research on nitrogen (N) mineralization from organic residues is important to understand N cycling in soils. Here we review research on factors controlling net N mineralization as well as research on laboratory and field modeling efforts, with the objective of highlighting areas with opportunities for additional research. Among the factors controlling net N mineralization are organic compositio...

The computational and network infrastructure which makes up the net is increasingly able to support immersive 3D applications. Recent years have seen 3D technologies emerging that enable the Web extended into the third dimension. The Hyper-Grid connects together over 100 virtual world grids containing over 20,000 regions, these technologies point to the possibility of rich 3D content becoming p...

The proliferation of web-based applications and information systems, and recent trends such as cloud computing and outsourced data management, have increased the exposure of data and made security more difficult. In this paper we briefly discuss open issues, such as data protection from insider threat and how to reconcile security and privacy, and outline research directions.

Contemporary software systems are beset by problems that create challenges and opportunities for broad new OS research. To illustrate, we describe five areas where broad OS research could significantly improve the current user experience. These areas are dependability, security, system configuration, system extension, and multi-processor programming. In each area we explore how contemporary sys...

The last thirty years have seen trmendous growth in research in mobile telemcommunications. However, interest in mobile computing, which includes mobile telephony and more, has increased over the last ten years. Nevertheless, most of the research on mobile computing addresses the “engineering” issues and the electronic componentary required for building mobile systems. On the other hand, algori...

control of target pests alone. The RNAi technology is in the forefront of all the ‘state of art’ technologies for pest management. Ever since the publication in Nature, 1998 and the noble prize awarded to Drs. Andrew Fire and Craig Mellow in 2006, for their discovery of dsRNA based silencing of specific genes through RNAi (RNA interference), the technology has fired the imagination of researche...

The Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham announces the availability of post-doctoral fellowships funded through the NIH T32 grant (T32DK062710) awarded to Dr. David Allison by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The funds from this grant may be used only for US Citizens or permanent residents. In very rare ...

Social media have enjoyed a rapidly increasing adoption among users in recent years. Millions of users execute billions of actions (in form of tweets, messages, replies, likes, etc.) every day. The massive amount of social interactions online has contributed to the proliferation of social advertising. Alongside the interest in online and social advertising, Twitter has introduced several advert...

Infrastructure robotics is about research on and development of methodologies that enable robotic systems to be used in civil infrastructure inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation. This paper briefly discusses the current research challenges and opportunities in infrastructure robotics, and presents a review of the research activities and projects in this field at the Centre for Autonomous ...